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Thursday, 12 June 2014

WO FAT - The Conjuring - Album Review

Wo
Fat

The
Conjuring

Small
Stone

17
June 2014

The
band:

Kent
Stump - vocals & guitar

Tim
Wilson - bass guitar

Michael
Walter - drums

The
songs:

1.
The Conjuring

2.
Read The Omens

3.
Pale Rider From The Ice

4.
Beggar's Bargain

5.
Dreamwalker

It
seems I have had to own up to a lot lately, missing out on bands
left, right and centre and Wo Fat from Dallas, TX continues this
brain freeze mode I'm in. Have heard about them
for years but for some stupid reason I have never paid attention to
them. Well, I'm the one who's lost out but that is remedied now with
the release of their fifth album, "The
Conjuring".

The
musical concoction they brew has equal parts heavy power blues,
psychedelica, doom and stoner with a pinch of excellent jamming. And
man it is an amazing drink they offer and like Sæhrímnir, the pig
Æsir and einherjar slaughtered every night and feasted on only to
come back to life the very next day, "The
Conjuring" comes back by each
spin, growing into a delicious drink that I can't stop guzzling down.

Starting
of with the title track which largely instrumental and full of long
awesome solos. The band is going full tilt with the jamming but they
also manage to be heavy as hell as well. How they pull it off I don't
know but holy shit it's good! "Read
The Omens" follows and is a
neckbreaker if there ever was one. Can only imagine the craziness
this one conjurs in the live setting. It's a beast you hear?!
Bringing down the tempo a notch or two "Pale
Rider From The Ice" crushes to put
it mildly. Slow and knuckle dragging it's a perfect mix of blues and
doom.

Groovy,
fuzzed out and full of distortion "Beggar's
Bargain" snakes it's way through
my brain with riffs of gigantic proportions. This is the type of song
that envelopes you completely only to crush you and bringing
enlightenment of other-wordly dimensions. Amazing stuff people!
Ending the album on an epic scale with "Dreamwalker".
Clocking in at just over 17 minutes the first 6 minutes are trippy
and psychedelic before shifting over to heavy power blues. These
Texans are punishing in such a great way which is no more apparent on
this long song. There's never a dull moment as they make everything
count while simply blowing me to kingdom come!

If
you, like me, have never listened to Wo Fat before "The
Conjuring" is a great place to
start. Obvioulsy, I don't know what their previous albums sounds like
so I can't recommend them per se, but judging by this release
checking those waxes out will be a treat beyond words. In the mean
time I will let "The Conjuring"
work it's magic on me. Hell fucking yeah!